In movie, TV and Literature, things such as coincidences are bound to happen due to theory of all stories boiling down to one of seven[footnote]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots[/footnote]
However I think we haven't put too much though on how that applies to video games, we just look at what has the biggest popularity on a pedestal and call everything remotely similar a rip-off cashing in. I bring this up because I found three cases worth checking out.
K.C. Munchkin!
TL;DW: Phillips wanted a Pac-man clone and they got in trouble for making something that looks too much like it.
Poncho
A pixelart, artsy platformer named after a hat, with a mechanic about flipping through dimensions. Does that sound familiar?
Switch
If you played Super Meat Boy, it should be obvious what's [rip-]off with this one.
Okay, my thoughts on each one K.C. Munchkin IS a Pac-man clone, however it has enough differences of the original so it's not a total rip-off (invisible mazes, moving dots, paths that change). Poncho's similarites to Fez are more on a surface level, because the mechanic of flipping through foreground and background has been done before (DK Returns, Wario Land VB, Crash Twinsanity), althought not this extent. And it's hard to defend Switch because it has the visuals and level design from Super Meat Boy almost 1:1; however it does feature a mechanic similar to that one level of Mario Galaxy 2, where Mario "flips" platforms in and out of existance.
I could have picked a case like Overwatch vs Paladins vs Battleborn, Thief vs Dishonored, Sonic vs the 90's anthropomorfic platformers, the "spiritual successors" kickstarted, but the three I've picked boil down to intention more than anything. One of them IS a rip-off of something popular, while the other two are doomed to comparasions even if it was a coincidence, one of them being more guilty than the other.
In this media where originality is becoming a double-edge sword in the search for new games to play, how should we proceed with every case? Because what if a game IS a clone, but it has something interesting to offer? Or what if a great game is dismissed a rip-off before it has the chance of standing out?
However I think we haven't put too much though on how that applies to video games, we just look at what has the biggest popularity on a pedestal and call everything remotely similar a rip-off cashing in. I bring this up because I found three cases worth checking out.
K.C. Munchkin!
TL;DW: Phillips wanted a Pac-man clone and they got in trouble for making something that looks too much like it.
Poncho
A pixelart, artsy platformer named after a hat, with a mechanic about flipping through dimensions. Does that sound familiar?
Switch
If you played Super Meat Boy, it should be obvious what's [rip-]off with this one.
Okay, my thoughts on each one K.C. Munchkin IS a Pac-man clone, however it has enough differences of the original so it's not a total rip-off (invisible mazes, moving dots, paths that change). Poncho's similarites to Fez are more on a surface level, because the mechanic of flipping through foreground and background has been done before (DK Returns, Wario Land VB, Crash Twinsanity), althought not this extent. And it's hard to defend Switch because it has the visuals and level design from Super Meat Boy almost 1:1; however it does feature a mechanic similar to that one level of Mario Galaxy 2, where Mario "flips" platforms in and out of existance.
I could have picked a case like Overwatch vs Paladins vs Battleborn, Thief vs Dishonored, Sonic vs the 90's anthropomorfic platformers, the "spiritual successors" kickstarted, but the three I've picked boil down to intention more than anything. One of them IS a rip-off of something popular, while the other two are doomed to comparasions even if it was a coincidence, one of them being more guilty than the other.
In this media where originality is becoming a double-edge sword in the search for new games to play, how should we proceed with every case? Because what if a game IS a clone, but it has something interesting to offer? Or what if a great game is dismissed a rip-off before it has the chance of standing out?
